Legislationline.org provides direct access to international norms and standards relating to specific human dimension issues (see list of topics on left-hand column) as well as to domestic legislation and other documents of relevance to these issues. These data and other information available from the site are intended for lawmakers across the OSCE region.

The Opinion notes many positive aspects of the draft amendments, such as the newly introduced possibility for police bodies to issue emergency restraining orders on site, the criminalization of the violation of protection orders issued by courts, and the willingness to exclude alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in domestic violence cases – which demonstrates Moldova’s willingness to render its legislation compliant with international standards.

At the same time, in light of the latest case law of the European Court of Human Rights and recent reports from international human rights bodies, the main challenge remains the actual implementation of the relevant legislation in practice, and ensuring the effective investigation and prosecution of domestic violence cases in Moldova. The Opinion states that a number of provisions of the draft amendments could be drafted in a clearer manner and provides a number of recommendations to ensure a more effective implementation of the legal framework on preventing and combating domestic violence in Moldova

The Opinion, requested on 21 May 2015 by the First Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia, dealt with a new system for the appointment and accountability of the Chief Prosecutor of Georgia. Overall, the Venice Commission, OSCE/ODIHR and the CCPE/DGI consider that the reform of the Prosecutor’s Office goes into the right direction. However, the Georgian authorities are encouraged to pursue further changes to ensure the depoliticisation of the office of the Chief Prosecutor including by

introducing clear qualification and experience criteria;

introducing more transparency in the manner of selection of candidates by Parliament;

ensuring that the power to nominate prosecutors to the Prosecutorial Council does not belong exclusively to the top officials of the prosecutorial system;

introducing further guarantees for the independence of the Prosecutorial Council,

and by clearly defining the coercive powers of the Special Prosecutor,

Based on a Memorandum of Understanding, signed between the OSCE/ODIHR and the Parliament of Georgia on 24 February 2014, the OSCE/ODIHR has conducted an assessment of the legislative process in Georgia, a situational analysis of both the formal procedures and the actual practices in Georgia that apply to the preparation, drafting, enactment, publication, communication and evaluation of legislation.

The assessment report discusses the salient aspects of the legislative drafting / law making process in the country and identifies the existing concerns and risks as well as a number of goals to be achieved in order to enable the law-making system to function in a more effective, transparent and efficient way.

The legislative process in the Republic of Armenia should be made more flexible and participatory, says an assessment report presented by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Yerevan on 30 October 2014.

The presentation, co-organized with the OSCE Office in Yerevan, was held for representatives from the Armenian National Assembly, the Government, state institutions, and international and civil society organizations. Read more.